New York psych-rock revivalist LUKKA lets dynamic range form the backbone of her upcoming debut, ENCOUNTER, her understated vocal performance emerging as if from an antique telephone against bombastic, interwoven guitars and a punching percussive backbeat. It’s a spot-on choice in terms of production, as it fills the entirety of the LP with a sense of wandering space, evocative of both psych pioneers like The Zombies and contemporaries such as POND and Tame Impala. Careful to not lose the forest through the trees, however, ENCOUNTER never gets too spacey, tunneling forward with explosive sunburnt energy on tracks like “Life Is Like On TV” and recently dropped single, “Blackhole Fusion,” finding the perfect balance between stillness and motion that channels psych’s colorful past in the fashion of contemporary, energetic alternative rock.
You can catch LUKKA’s technicolor soundscape at Pianos on November 16th. Until then, stream single “Blackhole Fusion” below. – Connor Beckett McInerney (@b_ck_tt)